The Graphic Novel and the YA Reader

TORDA'S SPRING 2025 TEACHING SITE

The Graphic Novel and the YA Reader

3/31/2020

Things to think about: Among the many points that we have been talking about this semester is the idea that any kind of reading is good reading, though not always for the classroom. Fortunately, YA graphic novels offer both engagement and erudition at every turn. There is some great stuff out there. This week, please consider Hey Kiddo as a text worth teaching in a classroom. Take into consideration the supplementary reading for this week on using graphic novels in the classroom. And consider the ways that visual rhetoric--the ability to identify meaning in visual--is an important skill that we can help our students to learn.

In about 300 words, consider the reading from this week (Hey Kiddo, teaching the graphic novel), how can using visuals in a classroom--graphic novels, film, television, art, photos--in the ELA classroom help our students become better readers of all “texts?" Consider our test class as you respond. Respond meaningfully (roughly 100-200 words) to at least one other classmate. Try to avoid the "I totally agree" response.

This Week's Class: You are teaching a class of 30 8th graders at Whitman Middle School. Here is a class picture. The class you are teaching is majority white. There are two students who identify as African-American. Just over ½ of the class are young women. None of the students are first generation American, but a few students have grandparents who immigrated, mostly from Ireland. More likely, the majority of students have great-grandparents or great-great grandparents that came from to the US during the great migration in the late 1800s—Italy and Ireland mainly. Your classroom is well-equipped. Students have ipads for use in the classroom and all of the students have internet access at home as well as at school. You maintain a teaching website where parents can check assignments. The parents at Whitman are, more or less, invested in their children’s education and pay attention to what is going on in the classroom. You have 7 students on IEPs ranging from high-functioning spectrum to ADHD mix. Two student are on IEP for cognitive processing problems.

44 Comments

Jailyn Tavares

4/1/2020 12:34:58 pm

Reading Hey, Kiddo can be really helpful and meaningful to many students since it is a graphic novel. This is really a deep story that is explaining the real life of the author and his struggles. While this book may be difficult, it can always serve as a reminder that your upbringing does not define who you are going to be, you can make good thing out of bad situations in your life. Jarrett J. Krosoczka does this in a touching and inspiring way that shows it’s okay if your upbringing is difficult and different from the traditional way. You just need to make the best of it. Adding the use of graphics in this novel adds to the story because it helps fill in the images of what is really happening of the story. Personal graphics were added to the novel that included photos and personal drawings from the author. If you read the author’s notes. You will also notice the orange color in the graphics comes from pocket square found by the author’s daughter while they were going through grandpa Joe’s clothes after he passed away. Also, the pineapple pages come from actual wallpaper grandma Shirley used since she loved pineapples The graphics being personal add so much to the story and allow the reader to get to know the author on a different level.
Overall, graphics can serve as being helpful to readers. The graphics can help confirm the image the reader comes up with in their mind while to trying to visualize what the author is describing. Since the students at Whitman Middle School have internet access at home and school, I would want them to watch the video of Jarret J. Krosoczka’s TED Talk which really highlights the key points in the novel. I also think the graphics will help the students at Whitman Middle School who are on an IEP. The graphics may allow them to find something that will constant keep them interested and keep their attention span going. Some people may think this will make a book easier to read but in an article by Mary Rice, she explains otherwise, “…my husband stopped me. "If you are turning the pages that fast," he said, "you are not really reading it. You have to read the pictures and the text together." When I started to do as he recommended, the book took me four hours of intensive study.” (Rice 37). You need to be able to understand the graphics just as much as the words because the graphics tell their own story and have their own symbols and meanings that the reader needs to find.

Shauna Ridley

4/2/2020 01:15:17 pm

Hi! Mentioning that this book is not easier to read ties back into your first point about how personal it is. Since there are graphics it takes more time forcing the reader to stop and tie the graphics to the words. I think that is why it's so personal because we can experience the novel as if we were in his shoes. The graphics make the story more tangible. I'm sure this would bring up some feelings in the students and it might be cool to let them make a short comic for themselves to continue on with the personal aspect. It could be about anything they want, happy, sad, excited, even a made up story but it would give them the chance to master the skills they've learned while reading the book while also having a fun assignment they can share with their peers.

Gabby Sleeper

4/2/2020 08:28:42 am

Teaching Hey Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka would provide a unique learning experience for students. As Mary Rice points out, graphic novels pique the interest of many students who are usually reluctant readers and provide a new challenge for those who enthusiastically read more traditional novels. Teaching graphic novels means teaching students to pay attention to more than just the text, which is why I would follow the example of Rice and first teach students how to read a graphic novel. I would definitely begin reading Hey Kiddo as a class and consistently stop and allow for discussions of the pictures. It is important to emphasize to students (especially speed-readers and those who may not be used to graphic novels) that a large chunk of the story is in, well, the graphics. They must consistently stop and study the imagery, just as one might stop to close read significant sections of text in a traditional novel. In fact, as a project, I would definitely divide students into groups to close read various sections of Krosoczka’s novel, with specific emphasis on the pictures. I would provide a guide for students to follow, encouraging them to look at perspective, color palette, drawing style, and any other details that stuck out to them. Groups would then present their findings to the class.
As a whole, I think that it is incredibly important for teachers to present their students with various forms of media to analyze. This will both engage students who have difficulty or do not enjoy reading and show students that critical analysis is applicable to more than just the traditional, “difficult” novels. After all, teachers need to be aware that some students will never pick up another book outside of school (heartbreaking, I know). However, these students will consume other forms of media, and they should still be able to apply those critical thinking skills. They should be able to identify propaganda in commercials, see the deeper meaning in their favorite movies, and formulate thoughtful opinions on their favorite TV shows. Introducing graphic novels into the curriculum means showing students that even the “easy” texts can be filled with more than initially meets the eye.

Jailyn

4/2/2020 09:09:47 pm

Hi Gabby,

Your response really showcases the big idea of graphic novels. There are so many opportunities that come with teaching and reading graphics novels to a wide variety of students. As you mentioned, the “easy” texts can have more that meets the eye and I really think that’s important for students to understand. In your lesson, I really like that you will take time to teach this graphic novel and make sure that you will stop continuously to have students analyze a page where the students need to figure out what this graphic is trying to say. It’s a great way to get those students on track with the story and remain focused on the plot of the novel while reducing the risk of students getting ahead in the reading. (I use to do that in my high school English classes, oops) I also love your idea on how reading and studying graphic novels also support how students are able to understand what we see outside of books such as ads, movies, commercials, etc. That’s could even be something to do as a project, taking a commercial and analyze it’s graphics and tone and then present it or turn it in as a paper, something along those lines.

Great job, I really enjoyed your discussion!

Megan Shaughnessy

4/2/2020 12:48:26 pm

Reading "Hey Kiddo" by Jarrett J. Krosoczka, a graphic memoir, embodies all the reasons why teaching graphic novels in the classroom should be required. I decided to attach a quote from Mary Rice's article we read because it could not be more accurate. I have always enjoyed graphic novels, especially "American Born Chinese," as she had talked about. In a prior course I had taken, I presented a lesson on the importance of graphic novels and the "voice" of images using Yang's "American Born Chinese." While Krosoczka's and Yang's books are different, they both showcase the voice images, and the story images tell depending on the reader.
Using visuals in the classroom is essential because it is reality. In modern times students and adults are looking at visuals each, and every day, whether it be on Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, a graphic novel, newspaper, magazine, television, art, and I could go on and on. Every day we are interpreting pictures, colors, facial expressions, etc. which is why studying graphic novels helps our students become better readers of all "texts." Teaching Krosoczka's graphic novels opens up doors for students to relate to other students, especially this 8th grade Whitman classroom. These students have parents involved in their lives, as far as we know.
Reading this novel will be an eye-opener for all students in that they will understand that some of their classmates may have a different home life from there's, and if not, they will be able to know how other students live. Reading graphic novels as Rice mentioned should not be fast because, yes, you read the words on the page, but you also have to read the image, and that is much more challenging. The lesson I had made before I started the class looking at Instagram images, some with captions some without, some were the same picture but with different captions. I asked the class: What do you see? What do you notice? What do you wonder? Images speak volumes, and most people do not take the time to look at them. The "voice" images will be different for each reader, and I feel like that can be a challenge within itself in the classroom but also the beauty of it. While reading "Hey, Kiddo," we follow the life of Ja, a life of love and complexities through words but also hurt, love, excitement, and struggle just through the images. With a book like this, I'd have students read the novel without the words and ask what their takeaway was? Then I could ask them without the images what do just the words mean to them, what was missing without the images? They could create their own images using just the text. Teaching a graphic novel will allow teachers to teach, dialogue, plot, etc. with the use of images. What do the visuals do literature wise, and what does the text do? Is it more meaningful to have emotions show just in the picture, text, or both? Graphic novels open a new lense for students in and out of the classroom. They will now be able to fully understand how to read a graphic novel and how much time it takes to understand an image. Teaching graphic novels will allow students to go into the real-world, understanding the meaning behind a visual without words. Every day students come across visuals, and bringing graphic novels in the classroom will open a new perspective of images for all students across all visual platforms, and that is something all students should have the opportunity to understand.

Shauna Ridley

4/2/2020 01:06:38 pm

Using visuals in a classroom adds more meaning to text connected with them. This forces the reader to slow down and analyze all the components of a story, word, concept etc. When only reading text the reader is open to interpret the text however they imagine it. When reading Hey, Kiddo there is a better connection because we can match the photos with the text. Adding in the images of the letters his mother sends and the photo of his father with the two kids brings in that personal feeling we get when reading this novel. It feels like we are getting to experience his life as he is. Since most of the novel is in visuals it's important that students analyze them. In this case the visuals help us to see new perspectives and learn about concepts we haven’t really experienced ourselves. With this novel being rather intense it allows students to see someone else's life. In a way the visuals make it more tangible for students who have never been exposed to the content.
Visuals around the classroom provide the same type of exposure. Everytime a new unit, project, concept etc., is taught there is a visual representation to help students grasp the new information. Mary Rice explains the learning process she used stating, “We also talked to the students about how to read panels directionally, how to discern narrative from dialogue, and how to observe images looking for contradictions between things such as facial expressions and dialogue” which gives students what they need to know to dissect the novel. Graphic novels provide another way for students to learn how to close read and use strategies that make the text relatable or understandable to them. With any type of reading we can use strategies such as looking at the pictures, reading the footnotes, distinguishing chapters etc. which make readers aware of all the components of their reading. Whatever type of text a student is reading has strategies that can be applied to any type of text and hopefully accustom the student to finding new strategies.
If I were teaching Hey, Kiddo in my classroom I would use a similar technique that Rice used. She explains how she covered the words to the novel and had students write their own meanings using the graphics. This gives students the opportunity to be better close readers and really notice the details put into novels. I also think students would benefit from making a short comic of their own, over a few days. Students will be able to recognize the devices used in the novel Hey, Kiddo, and have the chance to practice using these on their own.

Savannah Resendes

4/2/2020 01:47:30 pm

Graphic novels are a great alternative to the traditional type of texts for reluctant readers who easily get overwhelmed by a page full of words. This version of a book engages the readers visually with the story. "Hey, Kiddo" offers a personal look the author, Jarrett Krosoczka’s life and the adversities that he had dealt with growing up. This book serves as a bildungsroman as his character develops throughout the plot and he grows up right before the readers eyes. If I were to teach this novel in a middle school classroom, I would want to analyze it just like any other text. Just because it is a graphic novel does not mean that it is easier to read. The old saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” comes to mind because the pictures can show what a person wants to say without saying anything at all. The pictures themselves tell a story and the reader needs to carefully look at each individual section in order to get the full context of what is happening. We would talk about Jarrett’s character development throughout the memoir and have students point out different sections of the novel that show these developments. I would have the students focus on the tone of the pictures and what it means. Such as the shading on page 60/61 when we find out about Leslie’s bad decisions in life. We could talk about how the page is so dark to visualize the negativity going on in the page. We could talk about how the color red is the only prominent color on the pages and it highlights the blood on the men and his mother’s top. How do these elements get portrayed to the reader? etc. As an activity, before e read a chapter, I would give the students a small snippet of the story with some contextual information to help the students better understand the situation Jarrett is in, then I would ask the student to draw, by hand or on a computer if they feel more comfortable that way, what they imagine the scene to look like. This skill requires the students to deeply analyze the words and visualize what is happening in that particular section. I would want them to draw out the scene and portray how the character is feeling in the moment? What is happening around them, etc. Then as the students go on to finish the novel, I would have them compare their interpretations of the words to Jarrett’s. What did they interpret the same as Jarrett’s? How did it differ? What inferences led to these differences. Graphic novels are a great alternative to the traditional text, and I feel student could really take a lot from this novel as it deals with many personal issues that the student could relate to. It also shows the students that despite their circumstances, you can still come out successful and your past does not define your future.

Jess R.

4/3/2020 01:11:19 pm

Savannah,

You bring up a lot of great points here as you talk about the complexity of the visuals! You’re right that while graphic novels can be more engaging for students, that does not make it easier, because there is perhaps even more to analyze! I think focusing on the tone of the images is a great idea. It’s an important literary term, of course, but tone is also something students tend to notice right away. They can connect with the emotion of the page, which can lead to a breakdown of how the author/illustrator portrays that emotion. Your example of page 60-61 is spot on, since there’s an extreme visual shift to much darker pages. There are some other great examples, too, like page 72 when there is no. dialogue at all; it’s just Jarret’s drawing of his family. One way you might be able to introduce (or reintroduce) the idea of paying attention to visuals is by reading the class a children’s book during your intro to the unit. I know most teachers stop reading story books to children long before 8th grade. However, my 8th grade teacher actually used this strategy, and aside from all of us preteens secretly love the relaxing through back to Story time, it reminded us that the idea of pairing words with a visual was not new to us. Another way you could introduce the idea is by reading something like Shel Silverstein’s poems since the meaning often requires both the words and the visuals.

Before concluding, I also wanted to say that I agree wholeheartedly that the lesson in Hey Kiddo is invaluable to all of us, especially middle schoolers. Knowing that our past or our home life does not define us is huge, and as educators, we never know who in our class might really need to hear that!

Olivia Sweeney

4/3/2020 09:47:51 am

For the specific class given for this novel, I personally believe this text would be amazing to teach to these students. What makes “Hey, Kiddo” so unique is simply the fact that it is a graphic novel. As stated in the prompt, this novel serves as a great tool in expanding our student’s visual learning. I believe that visual learning is vital in classroom, as I am a visual learner myself. When reading a graphic novel like “Hey, Kiddo,” the visual aspect not only engages students to read the text, but also to be actively engaged in it as well. There are several ways to approach reading a graphic novel like this in your classroom, but I believe giving students several options on creative assignments that correlate to the text is key here. One of my favorite homework assignments my 8th grade ELA teacher gave us while reading the selected text at the time was an assignment called “Vocabulary Tic-Tac-Toe.” This assignment is exactly what is sounds like. The selected vocabulary words from the text were ones that would allow us to understand the text more clearly while reading it. In the homework assignment, you had to complete a full line of three assignments like you would win a game in tic-tac-toe. The only catch to this assignment is that we had to use the middle assignment as one of our three. The middle one was always to create a comic strip using our vocabulary words. It allowed us to be creative while simultaneously engaging with our vocabulary words that allowed us to read the text more clearly. I think an activity like this would work very well with a graphic novel like “Hey, Kiddo.” Mary Rice also states that during one of the conferences she attended she learned, “One use I heard about at conferences on more than one occasion called for covering the words and asking the students to try to write the dialogue using the pictures (Fisher and Frey). The literature on instructional uses of comics also suggests that one may also use graphic texts to guide students to create superhero comics or to engage in word-level tasks such as using comics to study literary devices, particularly onomatopoeia in superhero comics” (38). Similar to the assignment I did in 8th grade when reading works of literature n class, the conference Rice attended also stated a great activity for students to be engaged and understand graphic novels is to include some sort of activity that is similar to a comic strip. If students create their own comic strip with vocabulary words, they will be able to understand the creativity and ideas the author had when writing this particular graphic novel. It will also ensure students are actively engaged in the text and can even use the perspective of being the author and how they created their novel while creating their own comic strips. An important approach to teaching this novel is to ensure students are creating their own visual guides while also incorporating important vocabulary words that are essential to the text for their understanding. Another important approach I would use while teaching this novel is definitely reading the novel in-class. I am a firm believer in reading texts in class and having large group discussions. These discussions allow students who are confused to have their questions answered and/or clarified, as well as learning different viewpoints their peers have that they may have never thought of. The incorporation of smaller groups is also helpful, as I could have students read a specific page in class they were assigned and break it down with their partners. The students would be broken up into 6 groups of 5, and we would pick the next six pages we left off from our reading in class the day before. Prior to the assignment, students will have learned in class how to thoroughly analyze a visual in a novel and try to understand what the author is trying to show us. Then afterwards, we can have a full class discussion in which each group will share what they analyzed from their assigned page they had to analyze together. There are several unique approaches to teaching this text but allowing your students to follow similar practices to the author and the novel, as well as analyze the text with peers is an approach I would definitely use.

Nicole Costa

4/4/2020 12:40:30 pm

Hi Olivia,
First, I think its awesome that you were able to utilize an activity from your own middle school experiences. This activity seems particularly fitting with graphic novels, especially by vicariously recreating a comic strip similar to Jarett's process. I'm curious what the vocabulary words associated with Hey Kiddo you would include? Would they be general literary terms? Or, terms that are presented in the text? I think learning the graphic novel as a group is the best way to teach this material, as you stated! I also included group learning in my response. One thing I forgot to consider in my group activity was the 7 students on IEP's. I wonder how you would construct groups given the diverse learning nature of the classroom?

Jess Rinker

4/3/2020 12:59:11 pm

I believe visuals such as films, art, photos, and graphic novels belong in the classroom, but educators need to support students as they are incorporated into the classroom. As Mary Rice discusses in, “Using Graphic Texts in Secondary Classrooms: A Tale of Endurance,” there is a lot to soak up while reading graphic novels. I anticipate that graphic novels may actually be more challenging for students with different learning abilities. Depending on the individual, the rush of images may be overwhelming for a student on the spectrum or a student with ADHD. The need to comprehend both the written and visual text could also overwhelm emerging bilingual students, or who students who struggle to read, as Rice also notes.
One way I might incorporate Hey Kiddo into my class is by organizing a unit on, “What makes a family?” In my intro I would promote discussions about family (traditional and non-traditional). I would also include a mini-lesson on how to read a graphic novel. I would take a survey to see who in class have read comic books or graphic novels to get an idea of the general familiarity. In that mini lesson, I would include read aloud Jarrett Krosoczka’s “A Note on the Art” to the students. The note is a good intro to the story, but it also introduces students to the Krosoczka’s style, introducing the concept that there is a lot of intention behind visuals. This also means students have to read both the text and the images intentionally. To foster discussion, I would ask students to choose one page that stood out to them, whether because of the drawing or the story, and we would start there. Asking students to choose their own access point can help cut back the overwhelming feelings and from there we can, as a class, connect those narrow viewpoints to the bigger picture.
Because parents are mostly involved with their child’s learning, I would also send out a letter explaining that Hey Kiddo is included in the unit a few weeks before starting the unit. I would explain that sensitive material, including addiction, is included. In that letter/e-mail, I would explain why the material is important to cover in class, but also make myself available to discuss any questions or concerns parents might have. I would provide a similar explanation for why I chose a graphic novel, and I would ask parents to share any ways I could support their child during learning this new medium. Although parents may not reply, it’s important to invite them to participate and send the message that you’re on the same team. It might also help inform my teaching, especially if the student is on an IEP.

Justin Carpender

4/3/2020 07:12:33 pm

Hey Jess,

I love and appreciate all of the specific ways you intend to support students through what could potentially be a new form of literature for them, and especially how you would assist students with disabilities. I anticipate that there will be some concerns from parents over the content in the book, but you are right, it is important for these messages to be heard. This may just be my own opinion shining in, but a text like Hey, Kiddo would have made a much stronger impact on me about the topics of addiction than a guest speaker for the school. The reason being is that I feel like a memoir feels more private, there is a stronger personal connection with me as the reader and the author. I cherish that relationship, one that does not shine as well as a guest speaker would.
In addition to your introductory unit on “What Makes a Family?” I would explore potentially some texts either before or after Hey, Kiddo that have a heavy emphasis on family for the students to read. From people I have talked to, it seems many people have read The Glass Castle in high school, and that would be an incredible text to pair with Krosoczka’s graphic novel. My post focused on this, comparing memoir in literature through two different mediums, it would be interesting to see what students would like more.
As you mentioned, this text is heavy. Addiction is wide-spread and a real issue that students are either going to have had experience with directly, or know somebody struggling with addiction. This text would have made me cry in freshman year, as The Glass Castle’s conversation on addiction made me cry. I think it would be nice to tell students that it is more than ok to cry while reading this text, to mourn for the struggles that Jarrett Krosoczka faced in his youth, but it is incredibly powerful to end the conversation on the text to triumph and success. To focus on Krosoczka’s accomplishments throughout his life, his experiences influenced who he was, but he was able to grow and become his ideal self, and is now accomplished and happy. That is a powerful message worth sharing for our classrooms!

Thank you,
Justin Carpender

Justin Carpender

4/3/2020 06:56:43 pm

Hello Everyone,

I loved this text, it had a huge impact on me as an individual. That’s the way personal books hit me, they give us a real and true glimpse into the life of the author, and that connection means a lot to me. As for teaching a text such as Hey, Kiddo I think that it would be a good idea to have a conversation with the class where we explore genres for graphic novels. To be truthful, before reading this text I really never spared a thought as to the fact that graphic novels could be a part of a larger genre. It could be that I have only ever read one graphic novel before, and that the library clumps all of them together in their own section, but I never considered the genre aspect of graphic novels.
As a result, before diving into the text I went in wanting to find ways to teach this text alongside V For Vendetta, but it became incredibly apparent as all of these heavy emotions of family were being thrown at me from page after page to connect it to that text. This book, at its core, is an incredibly powerful memoir about Jarrett’s life and his familial relations and it should be taught as a memoir. I think that this novel would be an excellent pairing with Jeannette Walls' The Glass Castle, which I am sure many of you have read in highschool. The big takeaway from teaching these two memoirs would be for the class to not compare Jarrett’s and Jeannette’s experiences as growing adults, their experiences are not comparable. It feels wrong for the class to try and argue “who had it better/worse” so I would make sure for the conversation to never steep into that territory. What I would want for the students to receive from these texts is the different explorations of family, but more importantly, the stories of triumph in both texts. Both authors are incredibly successful, and it is inspiring to see how they rose to greatness despite the adversity that was presented for them. That is a story I believe young adults need to hear, and as a bonus, to emphasize Grandpa Joe’s little message about saying “I love you” to family when you’re leaving, I wish that was normalized in my own home. This book deserves to be taught in a memoir unit.

Thank you,
Justin Carpender

Ethan Child

4/4/2020 02:18:09 pm

Justin,
This is a fantastic suggestion--using Hey, Kiddo as part of a larger unit on the memoir. The memoir, of course, is its own genre that presents its own challenges and complexities in the classroom. Hey, Kiddo could serve as a great bridge text to other memoirs. I appreciate your clarification that teachers should not try to compare Jarrett's and Jeannette's experiences, but rather should emphasize the overlapping universal theme between the memoirs. This not only allows students to put the texts in conversation with each other; it also encourages students to pay attention to the form of the texts. What is Krosoczka able to achieve in his memoir that Walls is not, and vice versa? What are the rhetorical devices that these authors use? Which of these devices rely on text and which rely on images? What is unique about written texts and what is unique about graphic text? Putting these different memoirs together would allow students to explore these questions. Thank you for this great idea, Justin.

Maddie Butkus

4/3/2020 07:26:17 pm

When it comes to using visuals within a classroom, I have always believed that they are an extremely important aspect to incorporate. I came from a high school that implemented a 1:1 technology requirement which meant that all students and teachers were required to have an iPad throughout their high school years. It was with this use of technology that I was constantly looking at visuals within my classes, whether that be through videos, films, creative note taking, etc. While this type of hands on technology used within the classroom did come with its distractions, the benefits that came with it were truly amazing. They have shaped how I go about my education courses here at BSU as well as taking all of my other classes. While not all schools are lucky enough for students to have iPads within the classroom/at home, that doesn’t mean that visuals can not be used within a classroom.
For this weeks teaching scenario at Whitman Middle School, I would be lucky enough to teach within a class that does have iPads within the classroom and internet access at home. It is with this that I believe that I can implement the use of visuals within my classroom in amazing ways that would help my ELA students to become better readers of all “texts”. Firstly, after reading through Hey, Kiddo, it is something that I would definitely want to incorporate within my classroom for it is a truly powerful story about overcoming obstacles in order to become your best self. This coming of age graphic novel is a great use of visuals since students can look at images put with the text to understand the emotions of the character and better visualize the story as a whole. As I now understand after reading through Mary Rice’s article “Using Graphic Texts in Secondary Classrooms: A Tale of Endurance,” graphic novels can be extremely expensive to attain but ultimately worth it in the end so if I were lucky enough to be able to teach this graphic novel within my classroom, this is how I would go about doing so.
To start off, I would have my 8th grade class download the pdf version of this graphic novel onto their iPads under the Notability app. It is through this app that students will be able to write down notes, highlight important parts, and color code their notes to better organize themselves while reading the novel, thus creating even more visual appeal for themselves. I would also make sure to inform students that this novel is a memoir in which these dark events regarding addiction and horrid family interactions were all true and really happened to the author/protagonist. It is with this that I want them to know they are in a safe place where they are able to come to me about anything since the reading combined with certain assignments might be hard to get through for some. Furthermore, while reading the novel, I would make sure to break down the reading as much as possible so that my students don’t just fly through the text. As Rice had learned from her husband, my students must understand that they have to read the pictures and the text together in order to fully grasp what is going on. I would have students read both aloud, at home, and within groups which would always lead to a classroom discussion. There would also be worksheets given throughout, reading quizzes and most likely a larger writing piece at the end. All of these would in some way focus on the importance of overcoming obstacles and the hardships that come throughout. Additionally, as Rice had also mentioned, the use of graphic novels were recommended for “slow-learners” as well as immigrant students and English language learners which would be a great fit within this classroom. While there is some concern of confusion when reading graphic novels, Rice continually states that there are ways to get around this and thus better the students reading overall, including the methods I had previously stated.
Graphic novels read on iPads would not be the only way in which I use visuals within my classroom. I would want to use online videos, social media platforms, powerpoint presentations, movie clips and more to help better my students in their reading abilities. When combining visuals with reading, students can better picture what they are reading, thus better retaining what has been read. This leads to better recall of moments throughout the text as well as better testing and writing skills about the work.

Gabby Sleeper

4/4/2020 09:59:24 am

Hi Maddie!
I think it’s really cool that you got to have an iPad all through your high school career and that it must give you a unique perspective when thinking about how to incorporate technology in the class. I would love to hear more about what exactly you did with the iPads on a daily basis, as well as steps your teachers used to keep everyone on task. As for this assignment, I never thought of having students use ebooks; it certainly might help deal with the cost issue that Rice talks about. I have a soft spot for physical copies of books myself, but I do wonder if there’s actually any research on whether or not using ebooks affects how well students retain information. After all, highlight and notation features built into the books could be very useful, and ebooks are more cost efficient, especially as they cannot be lost or destroyed. As for your plan to teach Hey Kiddo, my only wish is that you were a little more specific with the assignments, especially the writing assignment at the end. What, exactly, would they be writing about? Would it be a creative piece or a form of literary analysis?

Olivia Sweeney

4/4/2020 07:23:05 pm

When reading a text like "Hey, Kiddo" in class and teaching it to our students, visuals are definitely key here. These students in this scenario are extremely lucky to have iPad's just like you did when you were in high school. I like the notion you have of incorporating several visuals, movie clips, etc., that students can have access to that will further assist their understanding of the text. I think a cool activity would be something you could incorporate into your class in which students must complete some sort of visual work. You mentioned you would be giving them worksheets, and this would be a great way to use visuals in your class, for example, in which student create a visual representation of a specific passage that stood out to them. There's several ways to go about incorporating the use of visual aids, but I whole heartedly agree your approach to teaching this text is a very strong and helpful approach for students.

Maddie Butkus response to Olivia Sweeney

4/3/2020 07:30:04 pm

Hey Olivia, your idea of incorporating several options on creative assignments that correlate to the text is such a brilliant idea! Combined with visual learning, having options for completing assignments is so important for students to have for they can create their best work in their own unique ways. Furthermore, just as both you and Rice had mentioned, vocabulary and literary devices used within graphic novels are crucial to go over and use within assignments. Your idea of creating their own comic strips with vocabulary words as well as visual guides can help students further practice this vocabulary, making it stick into their minds not only during this reading but others throughout their education. Overall, your ideas here are spot on and I will definitely have to steal some for my classroom someday!!

Nicole Costa

4/4/2020 10:55:07 am

Reading Jared Krosoczka’s graphic novel Hey Kiddo was a new and challenging experience for me. Much like the experience that Mary Rice expresses in her article “Using Graphic Texts in Secondary Classrooms: A Tale of Endurance” I was turning the pages too fast and “not really reading it,” therefore, it was easy to overlook some of the significant passages. Luckily, my local library had an audiobook available online and that helped me slow down and read. So, the objective of my lesson for the class at Whitman Middle School would be to SLOW DOWN the reading of a graphic novel.
First, I think it would be crucial to read Hey Kiddo as a class. While reading it together, I could guide them through the difficult adjustments in analyzing graphic novels. For many of our visual learners, reading a graphic novel might come easily. One challenge in teaching would be creating a lesson plan that adheres to the needs of the different learning styles. As part of the lesson, we would listen to Krosoczka’s audio reading of the novel. For each part of the text, we would break down the visual clues. We would learn to look for visual clues just like we would look for context clues in other literature. Mary Rice observes that in reading graphic texts we should teach “students in uncovering and recognizing symbolism, reading pictures as art, as well as to attend to the developmental concerns of adolescents.” This would be the ultimate goal when teaching Hey Kiddo. Visuals help students become better readers because it expands their ability to critically analyze using different methods.
The following would be some of our group discussion questions that connect the visuals and the text:

Contrast how Jared portrayed the back-to- back emotions of when his grandfather told him about Disney, and then, a few pages later, told him about his mother being addicted to heroin?

Let’s look at the theme of “death” in Hey Kiddo. The graphic novel opens with Jared and his grandfather driving to the cemetery. Grandpa comments that “everybody dies someday.” Why do you think Jared opened with this visual?
Also, let's look at one of Jared’s first encounters with death: his pet hamster. How can we connect that to the symbolic loss of his mother?

As a way to utilize the technology and access to Ipads in our classroom at Whitman Middle School, I would start a classroom page and we would blog our journey of reading Hey Kiddo by following Jared at heykiddojjk on Tumblr. As a final assignment, each student would post to Jared’s page #Hey Kiddo with a response to their experience reading. Students must include a visual. They would have the choice of uploading a page of the book or, if they feel comfortable, drawing a graphic that expresses their response.

On Jared’s website, the phrase “Hey Kiddo, Draw Your Own Path” pops up as you change any page. This hit me as something that, as teachers, we could presently implement in our classrooms. Having a middle school child myself, the current impact that COVID-19 has had on our children's learning environment is noteworthy. I think it would be interesting to have students visually communicate their journey through this moment in history. Jared says that “stories keep memories alive” and we could encourage our students to practice this. I would ask students to visually express their story during COVID-19. They could draw their own graphic, create a visual collage, take pictures of their at-home classroom, or anything that resonates with their experience during these unforeseen times.

Gabrielle Boutin

4/4/2020 12:39:53 pm

Hi Nicole!
This was a brand new experience for me as well. I had to force myself to slow down and take in not only the text, but look closely at all the graphics. I feel like they did the best at conveying the emotion that the author was feeling. I think I would tackle the reading of Hey Kiddo a little differently. I would first introduce the novel and how to read a graphic novel in a mini lesson form and then break it down and have the students read sections on their own. I think that it would help them develop their own opinions to bring to class and then we could develop them further in a large group discussion. However, I really like the idea of bringing the audio reading into it and maybe I would put this on the class website as an option for the students! I think offering different ways of presenting a text helps reach more students because we all know that every student is different. I think that social media is a huge component of a student's everyday lives. I think that we could challenge students to use that. Maybe have students either create a post that has the goal of presenting a message without using any words. Using social media as a platform can show students that visuals hold more meaning than they may think and it makes the lesson more relatable to their age.

Colby Nilsen

4/5/2020 08:50:07 am

Hey Nicole, I really enjoyed your idea of how this slow's down the reading process and almost forces the reader to be fully immersed into the world that Jarret wants us to observe. I would like to believe that this type of immersion into a text could hopefully help students imagine what the graphic novel version of a literary piece would look like, therefore enriching student's future literary experiences. Furthermore, the idea of symbolism being more easily recognized through a picture is obviously much easier than extrapolating it through a purely literary piece. Graphic novels are definitely a great tool to have students transition into making that "leap" into more difficult texts and recognizing themes and symbols.

Gabrielle Boutin

4/4/2020 11:58:18 am

This was my first experience reading a graphic novel and I really enjoyed it. The graphics added another level to the author’s story. I think reading a graphic novel would pose its challenges in the classroom. After reading the article on using graphic novels, Mary Rice brought up a great point. She explained that choosing which graphic novel wouldn’t necessarily be the hard part, it would be helping the students understand the text and constructing the meaning from them that would pose the biggest challenge. I think the classroom that is presented in this teaching discussion is a huge advantage because there are so many ways to research graphic novels (within reason). I think a cool project would be to have the students design their own story in a comic book style, but not use any words. I think it would be a great project to introduce them to using graphics/pictures to convey a message or emotions without using any words. High school students struggle with expressing their emotions and I think that showing them different visuals and helping them work on their ability to identify meaning in visuals could help them in more ways than one. I think that bringing in graphic novels would be a great way to mix up the typical English class. It is a great way to push the boundaries of what our students are capable of doing. I think graphic novels would be difficult because there are so many different ways to interpret visuals, but it opens the novel up to discussions and personal connections between the text and the reader. Bringing in different visuals is also a great way to include everyone, including the students who might not like reading. Discussing film adaptations or even the visual of the front cover of a novel and how that relates to the overall message of the novel can be a different way of discussing a novel rather than just focusing on the text. Hey Kiddo did an amazing job of conveying such powerful emotions through the graphics. I think that it was a very emotional story, but seeing it play out in the pictures, made it feel as though you were witnessing the progression of the author’s childhood.

Molly Drain

4/4/2020 09:52:02 pm

Gabrielle, I think your idea to have the students design their own story without text is brilliant. This activity would be a great way to convey that visuals can hold just as much meaning as text can. I agree that highschool aged students often struggle with expressing emotion and through this activity there is a chance that they will be able to express some of it. That being said, I feel as though they will only dive in deep if they don't have to present. I have found that students will hold back on their material if they have to present it in front of their peers. I also felt that while reading Hey Kiddo that i was right there with the author experiencing things as he experienced them. I felt that the visuals were a huge aid to my understanding of the story and allowed for me to connect deeper with the text.

Caroline Keenan

4/5/2020 08:56:31 am

Gabrielle-

In my post I also mentioned that a great way to end the story would to be have students write a chapter of their own graphic novel. I would allow the students base it off whatever whether it was happy or sad. With that being said when having students create their own I would have them use words because like you mentioned "there are many ways to interpret visuals". By having the students create their own chapter with pictures and words it would allow other to read and give feedback on how they may be bale to make their visuals better to relate more to the wording and get the message across a little clearer.

Ethan Child

4/4/2020 01:59:46 pm

I could see Hey, Kiddo being particularly beneficial in a class with so many students on IEPs, as a graphic novel would be visually engaging for these students. In the article we read this week, Mary Rice quotes Samantha Cleaver, who said that graphic texts like this one "pique reluctant readers' interest" (38). However, Cleaver also notes that those texts "challenge those students who are fluent in more traditional literature" (38). In this sense, I think a graphic text could be a good way to even the playing field in a class with a wide range of reading proficiency. Teaching any graphic novel demands that the teacher introduce new ways of reading that would not be applicable to "traditional" texts. So with a text like Hey, Kiddo, students would be learning a new way of reading all together.
In her article, Rice mentions one classroom activity of covering the written text in a graphic novel and having students write their own captions or dialogue. While I can see some benefits in this activity, I think it is limiting to students' appreciation of the graphic novel form. For example, what can we make of Krosoczka's use of full-spread pictures that do not contain written text, as on pages 72-73? These pages are especially interesting, as Krosoczka presents an image of an image. What does the image itself represent, and why does Krosoczka choose to show us an image of that image? Another example reveals Shirley's emotions that she does not vocalize (99). Images allow Krosoczka to show emotions, ideas, and feelings that were never put into words. In a lesson on Hey, Kiddo, I would avoid the obvious activity of having students write their own captions, as I feel that such an activity limits students' ability to appreciate and explore what can be communicated without words. Additionally, any lesson that emphasizes written text seems to diminish what should be the focus in a graphic novel unit: the visual image.
Unfortunately, I'm afraid that I am presenting more problems than I am providing solutions for in this post. I am not entirely sure what activities I would use to teach Hey, Kiddo. These, however, are my initial thoughts, and I hope some of you are as excited as I am by the possibility of ELA units that focus on the image and not just the written word.

Savannah Resendes

4/4/2020 07:17:39 pm

Hi Ethan! It is totally understandable that graphic novels serve as a challenge for the traditional readers and an aide to those who struggle with reading. Analyzing pictures is a different type of challenge than analyzing a text and I think it would be refreshing to have “Hey Kiddo” included in an English classroom, especially with so many students being on IEPs, as you mentioned. You ask some really interesting questions about pages 72-73 in the text. I feel that these types of questions, when asking your students could help them shift their mindset and think about analyzing pieces in a different light than the traditional one. Creating an engaging activity for this novel is difficult, as you brought up, because we are just not used to working with this type of literature. However, the more we bring in these pieces that stray away from the traditional texts, the more diverse students can be with their analysis skills for the future.

Lauren Melchionda

4/5/2020 09:13:40 am

HI Ethan! Graphic novels can be very challenging when first introduced to readers at this level. I feel as though making sure they understand the graphics in each chapter is highly important in maintaining their understanding of each chapter. This way, they can probably get into groups, and discuss the imagery we see. Great response!!

Molly Drain

4/4/2020 09:45:44 pm

Personally, I had never read a graphic novel until Hey Kiddo. However, I found myself immersed in its pages. In the supplementary article, Mary rice discussed the idea of using a graphic novel in a classroom and how it “incorporates visual interpretation strategies” (37). For a classroom that has students with IEPs, I think incorporating a graphic novel could be beneficial as it allows the students to engage with the story at a deeper level. I liked how Mary Rice noted that graphic novels can be used as a “bridge to traditional text”(38). I do worry that when using a graphic novel with students with ADHD that there might be too much going on within each page which could cause issues with comprehension as they might not be paying as much attention to the context. That being said, I find value in incorporating visuals for those students who learn better visually. This allows students to get a better grasp on the story, specifically if they are struggling with literary comprehension. I worry about the language used, for example in Hey Kiddo, by Jarrett J. Krosoczka, there are a few occasions where there is vulgar language. Not that the students in an 8th grade classroom have not heard these words before, but I worry that the very involved parents would provide some backlash to their students reading such material. What I did love about Hey Kiddo, by Jarrett J. Krosoczka, was that while reading it I felt immersed in his life and felt that although I don’t have the same experience as him that I could still connect to the story. This text would be great for high school, I’m just not so sure about eighth graders. Specifically, pages 134 and 135 with the images that correlated with his mother being a drug addict, although they remained true to the story, they provide details that could cause worry to parents. Saying that, I would be interested in teaching a graphic novel as it provides a challenge to the teacher. I think it would be interesting to see how students respond to the text as well as the visuals, and at the same time I would be interested to see if that response changed if one of those factors was missing. I think it could be a great opportunity to allow students who are creative to get involved in their own writing process and perhaps illustrate along with their writing. These kinds of stories could help readers understand “all” kinds of texts by showing that text can be correlated to a visual and with that if something isn’t making sense as you are reading perhaps if you draw the scene out it will make more sense.

Molly Drain

4/4/2020 09:45:54 pm

Hannah Brodeur

4/5/2020 09:57:26 am

Hi Molly! I think that the use of a graphic novel would definitely be effective in a classroom that has some students with an IEP. Any use of a visual would help students tremendously, whether that maybe a picture along with a short story or poem or small clips of a play they are reading. Different forms of media will help students who might be struggling while reading that particular text. I also thought your idea about having the student who has ADHD reading the graphic novel might be difficult for them because there is so much going on. I had not thought about that previously. However, I do think it is important that all students are able to experience the text. Therefore, I would work with the student and create different forums to present the text with, so it could help them be focused. I think although the text may have some elements that could be considered “vulgar” the majority of the text is not. The themes presented regarding family and relationships and understanding are themes that soon to be high schoolers could really connect with. Lastly, I think that the incorporation of some sort of project would be very effective in this lesson. This could give students the creativity to display their thinking in all forms.

Colby Nilsen

4/5/2020 08:39:01 am

I believe Hey Kiddo by Jarret Krosoczka is the perfect text to get 8th graders to be more invested into works of literature, as well as getting more comfortable into adult topics. I say this because it is essentially a picture book, so the juxtaposition of a more simple reading and overall interpretive experience matched with said adult topics such as addiction and finding the path toward a profession makes it perfect for this age demographic. In regards to the idea of teaching a graphic novel, it could be very helpful for students who may still be struggling to read and this will have them understand texts better. Having a visual aid to the texts makes the experience much more engaging, for there is another element. My hope is that having students read a graphic novel will have them implement a notion of "seeing" the text in future reading endeavors. This strategy can be exponentially helpful for students, and specially so who may have ADHD and have a hard time focusing on literature, for it is not always easy to pay attention and follow along with literary works. I felt my mind focus more with the text and felt that this book had a positive effect on me for being able to read it so quickly. I am confident this book would almost certainly have a positive effect on many students who see texts as this very strict parameter of art consolidated to just words. However, every piece of literature has an imagery in mind behind it, and having students develop this skill of imagining texts will hopefully make their experiences more enjoyable when moving to high school ELA classrooms.

Megan Shaughnessy

4/5/2020 08:59:49 am

Colby,

I liked how you brought up how graphic novels can help kids pay attention, I did not even think about that. Kids who have a hard time paying attention will have engaging visuals to focus on. I feel like this is such a good point, too, because some kids stare blankly at the page and listen to their classmates read if it is reading out a loud activity. During a reading out a loud activity, this would be great for those students because they will have the visual story to follow along with their students. This will give the students a much better experience with novels and will help better their understanding of the story. Also, in bringing up how all literature has imagery behind it too is helpful in teaching graphic novels to students who have a hard time with imargery. Some students struggle to envision what is going on in the story, so they never fully engage or connect. Graphic novels draw the pictures for them, so having to envision what is going on is not a challenge faced. This allows students to engage with the plot fully, so when teaching graphic novels, engaging students with plot structure could be very beneficial.

Caroline Keenan

4/5/2020 08:46:32 am

Teaching Hey Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka would be awesome because it is a graphic novel with a powerful meaning and message through out. Often times in middle school and high school students are forced to read novels that are not that meaningful to them and that they may not be able to identify with. I think Hey Kiddo would be a great choice for everyone to read at least once. It switches it up from a traditional novel to a graphic novel. The fact that Hey Kiddo is a graphic novel allows students who prefer to read graphic novels to feel more included, and it also allows students who don’t read graphic novel as much to see and understand why they are just as great and meaningful. Hey Kiddo is a memoir that tells a story of the authors non-ideal childhood. It can be a tough novel to read because of all the moments of abandonment but there are also some funny parts. The art in this novel helps to bring out the harrowing and heartfelt days that the author endured. The illustrations play a huge factor because they help us readers to understand the thoughts and feelings depicted. When teaching Hey Kiddo I would definitely start reading it as a whole class. Many of these students at Whitman Middle School have parents at home who care about them and who are invested in their education so they may have a hard time understanding the life of Jarret and why his family is set up the way it is. I think this novel would be a great introduction to show the students that not everyone has the same life style, some people live with parents, some people live with grandparents, and others may live with friends or in foster care. It is nice to read right before the students attend middle school to help them understand that people they meet may have different lifestyles. For lessons I would first start off by having students flip through the novel and think of five questions that they may want to ask the author, then at the end I would have students ask five more questions and see how their outlooks have changed. Were their questions more important for the author before orator reading? I would then have students read a chapter as a class and then individually. I would have them go back into the chapters and just read the pictures, writing down if they see anything different or can come up with a different story/ deeper meaning. I may even have the students read one chapter then read the next chapter with just the pictures. I feel like this approach the student would really enjoy getting to try something new like that. This graphic novel may help influence students to produce their own graphic novel. For an ending project I would have students create a chapter of a graphic novel about their life, it could be happy or sad but it must be detailed. By reading Hey Kiddo the students would understand what a graphic novel needs to be understood by others and all the little detail they need to include. Hey Kiddo isn’t a graphic novel that teaches students about different lives and views but it is a great example to show them about creating a graphic novel.

Lauren Melchionda

4/5/2020 09:11:26 am

Teaching the YA novel Hey Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka would provide an educational experience as well as an introduction to the YA world. Graphic novels are a way for students to explore themselves and understand what they like to read. However, it can be challenging as well as it is not the same to the usually novels that they read. Reading graphic novels may be a new change to some students, so I think that I would first begin the lesson by introducing to them some examples of graphic novels and then explain Hey Kiddo to them. Reading the first chapter out loud in class ay be very helpful to those who are unfamiliar with this genre of text. This way, we can discuss what is going on together and try ti understudy as a class. The pictures should be a big help as well, as we can always talk about those if they come up as a class or they can also be great for other near future assignments for this novel. Dividing the students up into even groups for an assignment for this novel is also a great way to teach this book, as in the groups we can have some students who understand and some who are a bit unfamiliar with eh material. of course I will always be around for extra help, but sometimes students get a better understanding after hearing a classmate share their thoughts. Within these groups, they could each come up with a small project about certain chapters with certain pictures and they can closely analyze them together as a group. They can then present their thoughts and ides of this chapter and pictures to the whole class, and that way, other students who were not in their group can share if they interpreted it in a different way, which would really get the class conversation going.

Samantha Colon

4/5/2020 12:29:10 pm

Hi Lauren,

Great Posts! I totally agree that graphic novels will allow our students to explore themselves. I think visuals are important because they allow us to see the story play out and its sometimes easier for students to see it rather than just read it. I liked your idea about dividing up the class into groups and presenting their point of view of the section. I think this is good to see different ideas and different interpretations because it helps us understand things we might have not noticed before.

Olivia Leonard

4/5/2020 02:06:33 pm

Hi Lauren! I enjoyed your ideas about how you would teach Hey Kiddo and other graphic novels. I thought it would be beneficial to have students read it together so that they not skip over aspects but I like your idea of pairing them in groups in case they have different interpretations. One question I asked my class is why would a graphic novelist include a certain picture and I think hearing from a small group would get much more varied answers. Some may see one part of an image that another student did not. I also think it would be interesting to have them imagine what the image may be by just hearing the words and see if what they thought matched what the author included. That also may be a nice activity to do in groups and have students switch off on reading.

Hannah Brodeur

4/5/2020 09:48:07 am

The aid of visuals is extremely important in YA literature. As I reflect back on my time in middle and high school I had very little experience with multiple times of media. However, my senior year we read “Hamlet” while also watching the film. This experience of having both forms of media helped me tremendously reading a text such as this. At times I would get a little confused by the language Shakespeare used, however making the connection I understood everything so much more. Therefore, this experience helped shape the way I view forms of media. While teaching the graphic novel “Hey Kiddo” there is many points to cover with students. When individuals begin reading this genre many times, they either pay attention to the words and not the pictures as much or vice versa. Mary Rice also explains this idea in “Using Graphic Texts in Secondary Classrooms: A Tale of Endurance”. She explains “If you are turning the pages that fast, you are not really reading it. You have to read the pictures and the text together”. That is a vital key in reading graphic novels. One great activity I would do with my class after finish reading the novel would be to have them respond in a short essay regarding this question, “Would this novel be the same if it did not have illustrations? Would you still have the same thoughts about it that you do know?”. This is an important question because it forces the students to think about the pictures differently. They are not there to just take up space, but rather complement and work together with the text itself.
Graphic novels can provide a wide variety of thinking in the classroom. I would use technology as a driving force at some points in my lesson of the text. For instance, students could watch videos or small snippets of documentary’s that explain different elements of graphic novels. Therefore, they could understand some of the choices the authors have to make before beginning their work. I would have the students make connections between the text and visuals in a number of different ways. For instance, I would ask students to find a panel in which a character’s feelings dictate the color or body language in the illustration. I would also ask students to find a page in which there is no paneling and ask why would the author choose to do this? These questions force students to make the connection between the text itself and the illustrations and what they are doing together. As a short writing assignment, I would ask students about the different mediums the author chooses to use. At times he presents his own work and other times he presents an overlap in which the page consists of different items in his life (at the end of each chapter). Why does he choose to do this? How does it make you feel as a reader? Both of these assignments would help students create a connection between all elements of the text.
The connection of different visuals in class can help tremendously with students who maybe ELLs or any student with some form of a learning disability. The different visuals allow for differentiation, therefore students who need the extra help are able to receive it while also without being singled out. This is what helped me while reading “Hamlet”, some of my friends knew exactly what was going on just by reading the text, however I needed that extra help. Therefore, in this class in which 7 of our students are on IEPs this would help greatly. Another activity that would be effective would help in this classroom would be to pair poems with photos. Many times, poems can be extremely difficult for students to grasp, therefore the connection between the words and the image may help students to kickstart their thinking. This would be possible also because each student has access to an iPad in the classroom. Therefore, if a student wants the access to the photo, they can have it but if they feel it is distracting, they do not have it. As Mary Rice explains different visual forms or “graphic texts have engaged students’ interests in reading and they have helped both sophisticated and novice readers to develop discursive skills”. These different forms of visuals can help all students and connect them in many different ways.

Shaun Ramsay

4/5/2020 11:17:29 am

I love the idea of teaching Jarrett Krosoczka’s Hey, Kiddo, I often see graphic novels get a bad rap from parents because they are not “real books” or something along the lines that they are lesser than the traditional novel. Teaching a graphic novel would firstly disrupt these thoughts, because parents in my experience concede to what teachers think is best in terms of required reading. This novel especially gets across the point that graphic novels are “real novels” there is so much substance in Krosoczka’s memoir.
The graphic novel is such a useful tool for an English class to extend their analysis beyond the written word. The graphic element of graphic novels allows students to use the same principles used in analyzing the graphic novel to analyze more visual media like film, television, dramas, and art. One pitfall that Rice experiences is teaching a novel and graphic novel adaptation of the novel at the same time, like she explains, these adaptations come with their own problems like the visual portrayal of the characters (Rice’s experience with Beowulf) or inaccuracies in the story (Dracula).
Graphic novels are great for children learning a second language as the visuals can help to give context as to what the characters are saying. The visual format also helps to better retain the attention of children with ADHD. It challenges readers not familiar with formats outside of the traditional novel, and allows for better visual comprehension.
I think teaching an original work like Hey, Kiddo works best for teaching graphic novels, as there is no adaptation to parse it against. Some of the kids in this class may even be familiar with Krosoczka’s work in juvenile graphic novels, as well as his picture books which would ground his memoir in reality for many of them. There are so many kids living with adverse childhood experiences that could relate to this novel in one way or another. I know after reading this book myself, I wished I had access to something like this when I was in middle/high school, my family felt so alien from the rest of the world and I had no one to talk to about what I was experiencing. Just to have access to a book like this that makes one feel like they are not alone is invaluable.
In preparing students for reading the book I would have to instruct them how to read the graphic format, and maybe give some background information on the format, and express my expectations for treating Hey, Kiddo seriously as we would any other book we are analyzing. I think it would be cool, and useful to pair analyzing a scene in Hey, Kiddo with some film analysis, I could ask the students to critically think about why the director for a film might make certain decisions visually and, why Krosoczka may make certain visual choices. Creating a graphic novel is very much like making a movie, and it would be interesting to have students work through that in class.

Samantha Colon

4/5/2020 12:14:31 pm

As we read the novel Hey, Kiddo it is going to be quite beneficial to students since it is a graphic novel. Most students tend to be more interested in drawings and the creative side of literature and being able to see the story play out. Visuals are important in a classroom especially for those who struggle and who are not the best readers. The graphics in this novel adds to the story and makes it more real because it helps fill in the images of what is really happening in the story for the readers. When teaching Hey, Kiddo I feel its going to go well and give students a new aspect into reading stories. Given the group of students I have and the access at home to technology I would give them the option of watching Jarrett Krosoczka’s Ted Talk on graphic novels or they can search up a graphic novel they have read or would like to read and be prepared to explain why they chose it or what they thought about the video. Before reading the novel I want the students to discuss the novels they chose and spend the start of class on this. Afterwards, I will have students go into a circle so we can read and discuss the novel together and I will put the book on the projector so we can see each page closely all together. During discussions I want to focus on family dynamic in this book vs their own or others lives while addressing any questions students may have. Moving forward I want to incorporate more PowerPoints and more visuals during class and discussions. My end goal for this assignment would be for students to create their own graphic story from 4-10 pages about their life or a fictional characters and will be graded off creativity and how well they wrote the story.

Shaun Ramsay

4/5/2020 01:55:24 pm

I think students making a graphic story as the end goal is great idea, it would help them better appreciate the work that goes into a graphic novel. I like that you give them the option between writing about their life or a fictional character, I never felt great about revealing my personal life in school and I think it's important to not force that on students. The only thing that would make me nervous as a student is how deep the discussion would go on the student's family dynamics, I think allowing students an alternative to discussing their family dynamic might be helpful for those insecure with that subject.

Olivia Leonard

4/5/2020 01:53:59 pm

I believe teaching graphic novels such as Hey Kiddo would be a great learning experience for students. As eighth graders I would imagine that many of these students have some form of social media. I really believe that people who spend a lot of their time on social media have a difficult time reading more than a few sentences at a time because they get easily bored. I think these Whitman students would engage in the reading more when they have visuals to pair their thoughts to. Visuals are something this age group would be very familiar with and it may make them connect to the story more when they are able to see real life images such as those shown throughout Hey Kiddo. This novel and the images within would also show many students a different lifestyle. I would suggest that it be read together so that students don’t disregard the images or, on the opposite spectrum, spend too much time on the images and disregard the author’s words. I would make students stop at each image and analyze what is happening and why the author may have chosen that specific picture to include. I would like for them to think about how the inclusion of images changes the reading for them. Do they like them? Do they not? Did they have a different image in their head before viewing the picture? I think this would be a good novel to just sit and discuss in a book club way. I think Mary Rice sums up why graphic novels are important perfectly in the last paragraph of her article. She states that “I have found graphic texts have engaged students' interests in reading and they have helped both sophisticated and novice readers to develop discursive skills” (Rice 42). This is a different way of interpreting a novel and it may be the one that makes a non-reader into a reader. As Rice discussed, it also helps those who may have trouble reading which would make it accessible for the students on IEPs.

Olivia Leonard

4/5/2020 02:02:29 pm

I do not know why I wrote real life images- I meant real cartoon images!

Becky Tynan

4/5/2020 06:09:55 pm

Hi Jailyn I really like the quote you used at the end of your response from Mary Rice about how each part of the text has separate meanings. Like the pictures have different things to offer than the actual words and thats true to my own reading experience, I did get and see other stories and symbols out of the pictures and media that Krosoczka's book has within it and it made me have to read other media than just text- reading photos as media and collected letters and drawings kind of is something we want students to do as teachers- think in this graphic novel the various types of media just like in a current situation of today where the media throws graphs and photos and tweets at you- every type of media requires practice to get better at reading it. And graphic novels would be great tools for practice for that real world application.
Even Krosoczka's TED talk would be applicable to a real world reading of media because of listening to speeches and hearing media and being able to dissect what you're listening to is so important to making students more aware and understanding as to why what they learn in school is important and what they can do with it.

Becky Tynan

4/6/2020 09:03:04 pm

I want to start off by saying that mixed media texts are a really cool way to achieve some goals in the classroom. I also think for this particular test class this graphic novel with so many different kinds of media included would be beneficial because it allows for more diverse and hands on activities/ assignments in the classroom that go along with the text that will hold the IEP students attention better and unlock all the students more creative sides. By teaching that writing is the only thing we can do that people can read we limit the mind of students. When we as teachers present other ways that one can be heard that is not our literal voices we open their minds. Student can be heard through their art when other people "read"/ look at it.
To teach this novel I would include at some point in the lesson watching the TED talk by the author and having students write about the value of hard work and what working hard means for them, I would also try to include the same prompt from the beginning of the novel about drawing our families- but maybe worded like draw what your family at home looks like- and included that it doesn't have to be a traditional nuclear kind of family. I would then ask students to write a brief sentence about their picture and who/ what is in it. I know this seems childish but the opportunity to doodle in a classroom is something that isn't usually included and I think it might be a cool mixup for some who struggle with the same kind of assignments all the time like some in this test class. I think throughout the lesson the types of assignments would be low stakes writing journal prompts combined with doodles- just to explore students creative side- some prompts maybe just a doodle and other days maybe just writing, and maybe other days a free choice of either. And then some days with both doodle and writing required. I think this variation in journaling will be good for the overall purpose of a writing journal because its difference in assignments for this text will keep the journal from being too boring and just blocks of text. I think other effective assignments for this text would be reading quizzes and a small individual project at the end.
This project may be for each students to try and make small collages like those in Krosoczka's novel that say something about our families and ourselves. This would then be paired with a more higher stakes writing assignment about the novel's themes of family and identity and what are some parts of each students identity that they think they have taken on form their familial influences. (maybe 3 pages?) In this way we keep integrating visuals and backing up our own writing skills. Mary Rice talks about the idea of using a graphic novel in a classroom and how it “incorporates visual interpretation strategies” (37) And this is beneficial here because one of the ways to get better at "reading" visuals is to also practice and explore the ways you can make them/ what you would do to make them. Just like reading and writing one of the best ways to get better at both is to read more and write more of your own things!

The Graphic Novel and the YA Reader

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